Art Exhibitions in London: June-July 2017

If you're visiting London and want to visit an art exhibition in London in June-July 2016, you'll find the list of art exhibitions below a useful start for choosing what to see and where to go.

It starts with exhibitions about individual artists and moves on to the Group Shows.  Dates are indicated and the title of each exhibition includes a link to the gallery's webpage about the exhibition

If you know of any more that deserve to be added in please leave a comment or contact me.

Exhibitions about an Artist

British Museum

• Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave - (25 May – 13 August 2017 - Room 35) - focuses on the last thirty years of Japan’s most renowned artist’s, Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), career from around 1820 to 1849.

Dulwich Picture Gallery

• Sargent: The Watercolours - 21 Jun 2017 - 8 Oct 2017 - The first UK show in nearly 100 years devoted to watercolours by the Anglo-American artist, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925).

Gagosian Gallery (20 Grosvenor Hill)

• Picasso: Minotaurs and Matadors (28th April 25th August 2017) - examines the bullfighting imagery by Picasso; curated by John Richardson

Garden Museum

• Eileen Hogan: Artist-Not-In Residence (May-September 2017) -  twelve large-scale oil paintings, one for each month of the year of places, parks and gardens in London that mean something to people. Includes an exhibition of her sketchbooks. Executed while the 'artist-in residence' for a museum that was closed for refurbishment.

Jerwood Gallery

• Jean Cooke - Delight in the Thing Seen (24th May - 17th September 2017) Jean Cooke RA (1927-2008) delighted many people with her very personal view of the world and the way she could make art from the everyday activities
• Quentin Blake: The Only Way to Travel (14th June - 15th October 2017) - news works created featuring extraordinary beasts, machines and narrative scenes, exploring themes such as dislocation, loneliness and depression.

National Gallery

• Chris Ofili - Weaving Magic (26 April – 28 August 2017 - Sunley Room) A new work in a new tapestry medium for Chris Ofili; imagery reflects Ofili’s ongoing interest in classical mythology and the stories, magic, and colour of the Trinidadian landscape he inhabits

National Portrait Gallery

• Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends (23 March - 18 June 2017 - Porter Gallery) - the first exhibition of portraits by Howard Hodgkin (b.1932), one of Britain’s leading artists

Queens's Gallery

• Canaletto and the Art of Venice (19 May 2017 - 12 November 2017) - series of views of 18th century Venice in a series of paintings, drawings and prints by Venice's most famous view-painter, Canaletto (1697-1768). It also includes works by other Venetian artists but Canaletto is very much star of the show

Serpentine Gallery

• Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever (8 June - 10 September 2017) - a major exhibition of new work - ceramics, prints and tapestries - commenting on modern society, politics and social media

Tate Modern

• Alberto Giacometti (10 May – 10 Sep 2017) - focusing on influences and practices
• Fahrelnissa Zeid - 6 Jun – 8 Oct 2017 - Zeid (1901–1991) was one of the most influential female Turkish artists; best known for her large-scale abstract paintings

White Cube. Mason's Yard

• Wayne Thiebaud (1962-2017) (24 May – 2 July 2017) - a selection of paintings and works on paper that date from 1962 to 2017.

Group Art Exhibitions

British Museum

• The American Dream: pop to the present (9 March – 18 June 2017) an outstanding collection of modern and contemporary American prints 
• Places of the Mind: British watercolour landscapes 1850–1950 (23 February – 27 August 2017 - Room 90) The 125 watercolours and drawings on display examining the ways artists interpreted landscape on paper during the Victorian and early Modern period

Courtauld Gallery

• Bloomsbury Art & Design 18 February – 21 September 2017 Special Display - a wide-ranging selection of work by the early twentieth century Bloomsbury Group. A new selection of works on paper will be displayed from 24 May 2017.

Garden Museum

• Tradescant's Orchard: A Celebration of Botanical Art (May-September 2017) - a contemporary exhibition comprising watercolours of fruit by fifty eminent botanical artists alongside alongside a display of ‘The Tradescants’ Orchard’, a seventeenth-century volume of sixty-six watercolours depicting fruit varieties that John Tradescant and his son might have grown in their market garden at Lambeth

Mall Galleries

• New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2017 (16 June 2017 to 25 June 2017) - an exhibition by a group of visual artists whose work is based principally upon direct observation of nature and the human figure
• Wildlife Artist of the Year 2017 (28 June 2017 to 2 July 2017) - the ever popular exhibition organised by David Shepherd includes fine art in various media by international wildlife artists

National Gallery

• Michelangelo & Sebastiano - 15 March – 25 June 2017 (North Galleries) - About the creative artistic relationship between two great Renaissance masters, Sebastiano and Michelangelo, from the 1510s through to the 1540s

National Portrait Gallery

• BP Portrait Award 2017 (22 June - 24 September 2017 - Wolfson Gallery) - an internationally prestigious exhibition and the most visited of exhibitions at the NPG
• The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (13 July - 22 October 2017) - featuring portrait drawings by some of the outstanding masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Natural History Museum

• The Art of British Natural History : Images of Nature (over 200 illustrations via 4 rotations) - Images of Nature Gallery - 11 March 2017 to summer 2018.

Royal Academy of Arts

• Summer Exhibition 2017 (12 June — 20 August 2017 - Main Galleries) - the biggest open art exhibition in the world. A unique platform for emerging and established artists to showcase works across painting and printmaking, photography, sculpture, architecture and film. 

Saatchi Gallery

• From Selfie to Self Expression (31 March - 23 July 2017) - the world’s first exhibition exploring the history of the selfie from Velazquez to the present day, while celebrating the truly creative potential of a form of expression often derided for its inanity.

Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew Gardens

• British Artists in Shirley Sherwood Collection (25 March to 17 September 2017) - Her vast collection of botanical art contains 330 works by 86 British botanical painters. Some of these are showcased in this exhibition, including Brigid Edwards, Coral Guest, Rory McEwen, Rosie Sanders, Pandora Sellars and Graham Rust..

Tate Britain

• Queer British Art 1861 - 1967 (5 April - 1 October 2017) - Featuring works from 1861–1967 relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) identities, the show marks the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England.

Tate Modern

• Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power (12 Jul – 22 Oct 2017) - explores how the category ‘Black Art’ was defined, rejected and redefined by artists across the United States

Victoria & Albert Museum

• The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains (13 May – 1 October 2017 - Room 39 - Exhibition Space) - includes set and construction pieces from some of Pink Floyd’s most innovative and legendary album covers and stage performances, original designs, architectural drawings, handwritten lyrics and psychedelic prints and posters.

Who's made a mark on art #264?

Anybody in need of an anti-politics antidote this is it!

I really ought to make more of an effort to highlight the links to interesting art stories or aspects of art that now go straight to Facebook  - but which used to get highlighted in "who's made a mark"

So here's a list of links - organised by source

Making A Mark

See my Making A Mark on Facebook Page if you want to get links more often

Artists

• Frank Lloyd Wright is 150 this week 7 Things You Didn’t Know about Frank Lloyd Wright is an absolutely fascinating article about him e.g. did you know he amassed a significant collection of Japanese ukiyo-e prints?
• 10 stamps were issued by Royal Mail on May 4 featuring illustrations of songbirds by wildlife artist Federico Gemma - a wonderful wildlife artist (who's in my book!). You can see pictures of Songbirds Stamps by Royal Mail - Work in progress  

Songbird stamps for Royal Mail by Federico Gemma - to mark International Dawn Chorus Day 

Art on Television

Dr James Fox in Japan - for The Art of Japanese Life

In the upcoming short series The Art of Japanese Life on BBC Four, the BAFTA nominated presented Dr. James Fox (he's one of the good ones!) examines the art and culture of Japan.

• The first episode is about Nature -  he examines how the country's two great religions, Shinto and Buddhism, helped shape a creative response to nature often very different to the West - and how contemporary artists are shaping a new response to nature
• In Cities - he looks at how the artistic life of three great Japanese cities shaped the country's attitudes to past and present, east and west, and helped forge the very idea of Japan itself.
• In Home - explores the art of the Japanese home and how its clean minimalism has been exported round the world.

Last night we had the annual BBC2 review of the Royal Academy of Art's Summer Exhibition - the world's largest open submission exhibition. Kirsty Wark and Brenda Emmanus going behind the scenes at the Royal Academy and exploring the stories behind the exhibition - which I'm going to view tomorrow morning. The Summer Exhibition opens to the public on 13th June and continues until 20 August.

• definitely worth watching before you visit
• highlights that the curator, Academician and Keeper of the Royal Academy, Eileen Cooper, has tried to make it much more inclusive, international and oriented on diversity
• this is Alastair Sooke, the Telegraph Art Critic,  on the Summer Exhibition which he gave 3 stars - Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, review: The dependably reassuring last word in déjà-vu
• Eileen Cooper RA gave an interesting interview to the FT - the title now makes more sense to me - Royal Academy Summer Show: the place where art is for all

A wind sculpture by Yinka Shonibare is in the courtyard

• Fancy watching the upcoming heats ON LOCATION later this month for the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2017? Read about the three locations, view on a map and learn about what you need to know about them in my blog post Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2017 - Watch the Heats
• Earlier this week I suggested that we could all catch a younger (slimmer?) more hirsute, less grey Andrew Graham-Dixon getting it on with "The Medici - Makers of Modern Art" (first broadcast in 2008) on BBC4 
• For those who remember the first Big Painting Challenge on BBC... (every episode covered by this blog)

Two years ago Katherine Tyrrell took this photo of us after our exhibition following #theBigPaintingChallenge. We still keep in touch, we are all still painting and still enjoying it... (Anne Blankson-Hemans)

from left to right the links are to Facebook - Paul Bell, Alison Stafford, Anthea Lay, Jan Szymczuk,
Anne Blankson-Hemans, Claire Parker, Heather Harding, Richard Salter,
plus the two not in the pic Melvyn Flint,  Amy Goldring

Art Competitions

Cultural development post election - the promises and who decides who gets what

The Art Newspaper seems to think that the outcome of the UK election could trigger a cultural bonanza based on the notion that

Both the major political parties make big promises about new money for the arts

When I started reading the article it occurred to me maybe there was another perspective based on timelines that it may have missed and the sort of lobbying that goes on behind the scenes in terms of what gets into any political party's manifesto.

First here are the promises - it's worth making a record of what they aim to do. I've abbreviated and bullet pointed where appropriate.

Then I reflect on how it might all work - and who might decide who gets what.

If there is a Conservative Government

This is what the Conservative Manifesto says - albeit I had to find most of this by plugging in words to the find command while viewing the pdf file. It's not very accessible!

Prosperous towns and cities across Britain - page

Our towns and cities excel when they have vibrant cultural life. Britain’s arts and culture are world-beating and are at the heart of the regeneration of much of modern Britain. 

We will 

• continue our strong support for the arts, and ensure more of that support is based outside London.
• maintain free entry to the permanent collections of our major national museums and galleries. 
• introduce a new cultural development fund to use cultural investment to turn around communities. 
• hold a Great Exhibition of the North in 2018, to celebrate amazing achievements in innovation, the arts and engineering. 
• support a UK city in making a bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. 
• in this 70th Anniversary Year of the Edinburgh Festival we will support the development of the new Edinburgh Concert Hall, reaffirming Edinburgh as the UK’s leading festival city and a cultural beacon around the globe.

A Knowledge Rich Curriculum - page 50-51

We will 

• ensure all children have access to an academic, knowledge-rich curriculum. 
• introduce a curriculum fund to encourage Britain’s leading cultural and scientific institutions, like the British Museum and others to help develop knowledge-rich materials for our schools, 

Shared institutions of Union - page 34-45

For too long, power in Britain has been centred in London. This means opportunity has centred in London too. It is time major cities around Britain shared in the government of the United Kingdom. 

We will 

• proceed on the same basis with the arts and cultural organisations that give our United Kingdom such strength. 
• Channel 4 will remain publicly owned and will be relocated out of London
• work with the nation’s most eminent museums and galleries to ensure their works and expertise are shared across the country

If there is a Labour Government

Labour have a LOT more to say about Culture and the arts

Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2017 - Watch the Heats

The Heats for the Sky Landscape Artist of the Year 2017 start next week. There are six heats in the first stage of the Competition taking place in the North East, North Yorkshire and South Wales.

All the Wild Cards have now been dished out with the exception of Heat 2 on Wednesday 14th June. See this page to apply

However the public can watch the heats take place!

Sky Arts LandscapeArtist of the Year competition would love you to come and join us on the day to support the artists and join in the fun! Filming will take place between 10am - 5pm approx. (it is not essential to stay for the duration of filming, you may come and go as you please)

Please take into consideration the weather and location in regards to clothing, footwear, and refreshments when planning for your chosen day.

Here are the locations

Heats 1 and 2: Paddy’s Hole, Teesside 

13th and 14th June 2017 - "striking industrial scenery in Teesside"

Paddy's Hole - The Wikipedia version

Paddy's Hole is a small harbour at the mouth of the River Tees - down river from Middlesborough. It's located in South Gare, near Redcar in Teeside (in the North East of England). This is a man made cove and is home to fishing boats and fisherman huts.  The backdrop in the picture above is the Coke Plant and Blast Furnace of the Teesside steelworks. It's situated about 2 miles down the private access road from Warrenby.

There are no shops at Paddy's Hole - so visitors will need to pack food and drink for the duration of your visit.

Paddy's Hole - the optimistic publicity version!

Reference:

• A Shimmering of Northern Light - Paddy’s Hole, Redcar, Teesside - contains lots and lots of views of what can be seen at this location. However what gets painted by who is dictated by the production team!
• Wikipedia - South Gare
• MamyPhoto - Paddy's Hole, South Gare, Redcar

Heats 3 and 4 - Knaresborough Castle, North Yorkshire

20th and 21st June 2017 - "picturesque historic town"

Knaresborough Castle - up close

I'm thinking some of the views from the top of the hill must be superb if the ones looking up at it from the River are anything to go by.

Knaresborough Castle from underneath the bridge on the River Nidd

a stunning cliff-top location towering over the River Nidd stands Knaresborough Castle, once a mighty stronghold of medieval kings.

Knaresborough Castle is a ruined fortress overlooking the River Nidd in the town of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England. It's owned by the Duchy of Lancaster and is managed by Harrogate Borough Council.



Reference:

• Harrogate Borough Council - Knaresborough Castle and Museum + Planning your visit
• Wikipedia - Knaresborough Castle

Heats 5 and 6: Rhossili, Gower, South Wales

27th and 28th June 2017 - "spectacular views from the Gower Peninsula"

Sandy beaches at The Gower

The Gower Peninsula (Welsh: Penrhyn Gwyr) was the first place in Britain to be designated as an 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty' (AONB) by the Countryside Agency.  Rhossili is located at the most Western part of the Gower Peninsula - effectively it's the end of the road!

Rhossili Bay curves along an arc running northwards from the village. The sandy beach is three miles (5 km) long and is backed with sand dunes. Locals refer to the beach as Llangennith Sands. At the southern end of the Bay is the small tidal island called Worm's Head. It'll be interesting to see how the producers try to contain the painters!

Worm's Head

Reference:

• Rhossili and South Gower Coast | National Trust - the National Trust website contains this notice

Important notice - Car park improvements taking place at Rhossili, although parking is available, we’ve fewer spaces than normal, it can get busy at times, please allow plenty of time for your visit. Coach parking is unavailable during improvement works.

• Explore Gower
• Rhossili. The village of Rhossili in The Gower Peninsula, South Wales
• Wikipedia - Rhossili

Semi Finals and The Final

The Semi Finalists will consist of the winners of each of the Heats and will take place on Tuesday 18th July 2017. The Finalists will be asked to complete a further two landscape artworks

Previous posts

• Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2017 - call for entries
• Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2016 - Heat Winners & Finalists

4th John Ruskin Prize Shortlist announced

The shortlist for the 2017 John Ruskin Prize was recently announced - and the names of the artists are listed below

Theme for 2017

The theme of the 4th John Ruskin Prize is "Hand & Eye: Master of All Trades in The Age of Jack" - it's about the Artist as Polymath

This year’s theme: refers to the Artist as Polymath. Open to a range of interpretations and approaches, the theme is intended to lend itself to responses from artists and makers whose work celebrates the opportunity to marry diverse materials and disciplines.

In celebration of ‘Artist as Polymath’, 2017 marks the first year that The Prize will be open to makers and craftspeople, as well as fine artists. Alongside Ruskin’s own career as a polymath, the theme has been jointly inspired by The Year of Making in Sheffield, which took place throughout 2016, and The Big Draw’s year of STEAM Power, which celebrates the interconnections between Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths

The Awards

The Award is £5000 with

• £3000 going to the winner, and 
• £1000 going to both the Second Prize and Student Prize & Recent Graduate winners.

The Shortlist

The shortlist of 26 artists, makers and innovators was selected from over 1,000 entries.

The artist / scientist parallel is apparent in the shortlist but there is also evidence of traditional craft combined with social commentary, skilful material manipulation and a visual wit within the selected artworks.

In my experience this is an art competition which throws up some of the more interesting artists working today.

• Louisa Boyd - primarily works as a book artist
• Holly Brodie - a self-taught landscape painter brought up in rural Somerset and now based in suburban West London
• Nuala Clooney - a sculptor and a visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University
• Andrew Ekins  
• Erin Dickson - a digital designer and fabricator. She's worked as the waterjet technician at National Glass Centre and is now the design and manufacturing technician at FabLab Sunderland.  Her Twitter account is @Archiglass
• Paul Hazelton - a British artist based in Margate. His sculptures are intricately constructed using household dust, cobwebs, hair or cut paper, stuffed toys or other materials.
• Marielle Hehir - Did an MA Painting at the Slade between 2014-2016 - and was awarded a Distinction

The original Midland Line Railway Works 2 
is the drawing which inspired Ann Howeson's work
selected for the exhibition

• Anne Howeson - an artist and a Tutor in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art. Shortlisted for a stop frame 'moving drawing' called Regeneration and Revival at King's Cross

She devised the seminar series ‘DRAW’ which supports second-year MA students working on sustained drawing projects and welcomes a wide interpretation of ideas from any area or discipline

• Rebecca Ilett - Has a degree in sculpture and later trained to be a jeweller - trying to present jewellery as art and aims to create wearable art or wearable narratives

Rebecca Ilett 'Spinning Straw into Gold' (2016). Photo: Simon White

• Shelley James - Trained in textiles, pursued a career in corporate design for international clients; studied Printmaking at the University of the West of England and has developed new techniques for encapsulating prints in glass. Her work is currently inspired by conversations with scientists
• Debbie Lawson - born in Dundee and lives and works in London. Graduated from Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. A multi-media artist. Difficult to describe what she does.... but it's interesting
• Emily Lazerwitz - graduated from Slade School of Fine Art with an M.F.A in Fine Art Media with Distinction, June 2016. She makes Machine Knit Scarf made of 100% reredacted CIA documents from the FOIA archives
• Sue Lawty - Textile Artist in Residence at the V&A in 2005
• Bethan Lloyd Worthington - Ceramics Artist in Resident at the V&A in 2016. A London based artist who works with drawing, objects and installation to explore themes of place and fragmentation through time
• Hugh Miller - an award-winning contemporary applied artist specialising in studio furniture in wood. Hugh’s work is based on a set of design principles, developed during his Churchill Fellowship in Japan in 2015
• Rosa Nguyen - a London artist with an established practice based in ceramics. She makes objects, installations and displays which include ceramic, glass and botanical elements.
• Kyle Noble - Graduated with a Masters in Fine art from Edinburgh College of Art in 2013. He received the RSA Highland Society of London Award 2014, the RSA William Littlejohn Award 2013 and was selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2013. Over the last two years Noble has devoted his practice to the description of an imaginary ancient culture called 'The Meiklians', who built the stone circles around his home in Aberdeenshire.
• Briony O Clarke - Artist in Residence (2014-2017) at Portmeirion Village, North Wales. MA in Communication Art & Design (2009-2011) at the Royal College of Art
• Sumi Perera - an interdisciplinary artist whose work draws on her background as a doctor and scientist. She generates multiple series from a given set of plates by combining hybrid printmaking techniques (etching, aquatint, drypoint, monoprint, chine-colle, collagraphs, mezzotint, lithography, kiln-fired screenprint decals etc.) with stitch and Computer Numerical Controlled methods (laser-cutting/engraving, sandblasting etc.)
• Shauna Richardson - produces realistic life-size animal sculpture created using crochet
• Conor Rogers - graduated from Sheffield Hallam University 2014 and one of his degree pieces was selected for the John Moores Painting Prize. Paints photo realistic depictions of everyday life and landscape in acrylic on found objects (e.g. crisp, cigarette and condom packets and beer mats)
• Fi Smart
• Serena Smith - trained in fine art lithography at the Curwen Studio (1984-96), and studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art (MA); work has been selected for numerous exhibitions both in the UK and internationally
• Harland Viney - born and raised in Australia, resident in the UK since 1999. Work with film, performance, drawing, painting, printing and photography
• Simon Ward & Robert Mach - foil wrapper from a Tunnocks teacake gratefully received...
• Ray Winder - a Surrey-based artist and sculptor specialising in miniature paintings and finely carved sculptures in wood

Selection Panel

The members of The John Ruskin Prize 2017 selection panel who selected the shortlist from over 1000 submissions are:

• Kirstie Hamilton (Head of Exhibitions & Displays, Museums Sheffield), 
• Zachary Eastwood-Bloom (Sculptor), 
• Mandy Payne (Artist), Julia Bell (Former Head of Partnerships, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art), 
• Dr Rachel Dickinson (Director for Education, Guild of St. George / Principal Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University), and 
• Kate Mason (Director, The Big Draw).

Private View and Prizegiving

The selection panel will announce the 1st Prize, 2nd Prize and Student Prize Winners (total prize fund of £5,000) at the Private View of the shortlist exhibition on 20th June 2017.

The Exhibition

The exhibition is being held at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield between 21st June and 8th October 2017

Reference

• John Ruskin Prize: http://www.ruskinprize.co.uk/

Previous posts on Making A Mark

• 2015​: ​
• The John Ruskin Prize 2015: Call for Entries
• ​ The John Ruskin Prize 2015: Shortlist
• 2014​: 
• The John Ruskin Prize 2014 - call for entri​es
• Recording Britain Now - exhibition and prizewinner
• 2012: The John Ruskin Prize - A New Look at Nature: Call for Entries